Forestation, Rescue Efforts In Low Lying Area Has Improved In India Using GIS Data: Esri India

Controlling the impact of climate change will take time but forestation and rescue efforts have improved in India with the help of geographic information system tools, a top official of Esri India said.

While launching the first-ever Linux-based desktop GIS software, GeoSARAL, Esri India managing director Agendra Kumar said that most government departments, both at the Centre and state levels, use GIS to manage segments such as agriculture, urban development, land resource management, water management, and disaster management.

He said controlling the impact of climate change will take time but simulations using GIS tools have made administration better.

"Now with mapping and GIS they (authorities) have figured out which are the low-lying areas. and they need more rescue efforts, to create better drainage systems so that the water is evacuated from that place. I think that change is happening in India because of the studies that we have done," Kumar said.

A year ago, Esri India released a report in collaboration with IPE-Global which showed over 85% of Indian districts are prone to at least one major climate event like flood, drought, cyclone or heat wave, and they need to calibrate existing infrastructure to mitigate the losses and handle threats arising out of climatic changes.

"The temperature difference between an area which has a larger green cover versus the temperature where there are more high-rise buildings, more concrete. There is a three- or four-degree difference between these two. Awareness is coming in that let's have more green areas. Forestation has improved over the last two decades, I would say, the deforestation which was happening earlier has changed and now it's reversing at the country level," Kumar said.

Talking about Linux-based GIS software product for desktop, GeoSaral, Kumar said Linux operating system has a very high market share in India.

"As per the data available, it's about 16.2% which is higher than the US, France, and Germany combined. Demand came from people in defence, people in utilities, people in agriculture, and urban applications for Linux-based GIS software. A lot of enterprises use Linux. Therefore, we decided to come up with GeoSARAL that will work as a standalone product without connecting to the internet," he said.

Kumar said that before GeoSaral, there had been no commercially operating GIS software for Linux globally.